Nurses at Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside, Calif., will hold a press conference on Thursday, Nov. 17, to demand Tri-City management address critical, ongoing staffing and patient safety issues that have intensified over the last few months, California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU) announced today.

“Nurses have been demanding that hospital administrators address the chronic and widespread problem of short staffing that causes delays in care and potentially puts patients at risk, but management refuses to listen,” said Cathy Cronce, RN, who works in the TCMC post-anesthesia care unit and is the chair of the facility’s professional practice committee. “We have nearly 600 records, from July to September of this year, documenting that nurses have missed a rest or meal break — all in a single unit, telemetry. The current RN staff is already stretched beyond our limits. We know Tri-city has the resources to provide for safe staffing levels. They need to do the right thing and staff appropriately.”

• What: Tri-City RN Press Conference for Safe Staffing
• When: Thursday, Nov. 17 at 12 p.m.
• Where: Tri-City Medical Center, 4002 Vista Way, Oceanside, CA 92056

Following the press conference, Tri-City Medical Center registered nurses plan to speak at the Tri-City board meeting to directly address management about the hospital’s critical short staffing situation.

“Nurses take care of our patients, and that means we are also patient advocates. That’s why we feel we must make sure the community knows about the serious failure in leadership by Tri-City management,” said Doris Turner, RN, who works in the TCMC emergency department. “Nurses want to take excellent care of our patients every day. That is why we are advocating for patient safety. We need safe staffing now. Nurses have repeatedly raised our staffing concerns to management, and they have ignored our requests to meet or come up with a serious staffing plan as we brace ourselves for another winter surge.”

CNA/NNU represents more than 500 nurses at TCMC.

The California Nurses Association/National Nurses United is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the nation with 100,000 members in more than 200 facilities throughout California and nearly 225,000 RNs nationwide.